ABSTRACT:Friendship quality has been associated with psychosocial adjustment
throughout the lifespan. Although emerging adults’ friendships differ by
gender, little is known about how the gender of emerging adults and their
friends are related to their psychosocial adjustment. Undergraduate
students from 4 U.S. universities (N = 792) completed an online study.
Women reported higher levels of self-worth, identity commitment, social
physique anxiety, and friendship quality than did men, F(5, 779) = 10.12,
p < .001, η2 = .06. A gender x friend’s gender interaction was found, F(5,
779) = 3.22, p = .007, η2 = .02, such that women with male friends reported
lower levels of self­-worth and more social physique anxiety compared to
those with female friends, and men with female friends reported lower
levels of self-­worth compared to those with male friends. Thus, gender
differences existed in emerging adults’ psychosocial adjustment, but the
gender of friends also aided in explaining that adjustment.

Parental Involvement in a Childcare Center:
Accessing Predictors of School-Based InvolvementKosha D. Bramesfeld, Ann C. Carrick, Stephanie L. Lessmeier, Abbie N. Nicoloff, Molly E. Keier, and Stephanie A. Metter, Maryville University of St. Louis
ABSTRACT:The Hoover­-Dempsey and Sandler (1995, 1997, 2005) model of
parental involvement proposes that a parent’s motivational beliefs, school
climate, and life context variables affect a parent’s decision to become
involved in his/her child’s education. This model has been tested at the
elementary and secondary school level, but few studies have tested the
model in childcare centers for infants, toddlers, and preschool-­aged
children. We used this model to identify and examine factors that predicted
school­-based parental involvement at a nonprofit childcare center located
in the Midwestern United States. Within the context of a childcare center,
school­-based parental involvement was defined as participating in childcare­-sponsored events, volunteering at the childcare center, and participating
in shared governance activities. Motivational beliefs, specific invitations for
involvement, parent­-to­-parent relationships, and time for involvement
emerged as significant and positive correlates of parental involvement,
ps < .05. However, when all of the significant predictors were considered
simultaneously in a multiple regression analysis, we found that motivational
beliefs was the strongest predictor of the actual frequency of events
attended, β = .32, p = .05. We recommend that childcare centers foster
parents’ motivational beliefs about the importance of involvement.

Gendered Feelings of Power and HelpfulnessElizabeth A. Holleman, Cayce Cheairs, and Kathleen E. Cook, Seattle UniversityABSTRACT:Implicit social cognition research has shown that power promotes
action-­taking. Yet, power also reduces perspective-­taking, a cognitive
function associated with prosocial behavior. This experiment investigated
the effect of power primes on helpfulness. The researchers hypothesized
that participants primed with high power would be less helpful, on average,
than those primed with low power. Fifty­-nine college students were randomly
assigned to either the high or low power condition and were asked by one
of the two researchers to write about a personal experience related to power.
The study gave participants (n = 59) two opportunities to help: donating
earnings from the study to charity and picking up pencils spilled by the
other researcher. The results showed no significant main effect for power
or gender on either measure of helpfulness. There was, however, a
significant interaction in a 3­-way ANOVA between power prime, gender,
and researcher in the role of pencil­-dropper on helping with the pencils,
p = .007, ηp2 = .14. There was also a significant interaction between power
and gender on helping with the pencils, p = .008, ηp2 = .14. Results are
discussed in terms of action-­taking and gender role expectations. These
findings illustrate the necessity of examining gender when looking at how
power affects behavior because power can elicit different mental states and
emotions in men and women.

Facebook as a Mechanism for Social Support and Mental Health WellnessTrey Asbury and Schawn Hall, Texas Woman's UniversityABSTRACT:The Internet has become increasingly popular as a source of news,
entertainment and communication over the last 2 decades. Online social
networks, such as Facebook®, are especially popular with college students;
9 out of 10 have a social account and average 47 min of screen time per
day interacting with others (Sheldon, 2008). The present study sought to
determine whether the use of Facebook constitutes a perceived social
support for college students. Higher perceived levels of social support were
found for frequent Facebook users as compared to low frequency users
t(125) = 9.82, p < .001, estimated power .87. Frequency of social media was
also related to wellness and perceived relationship with family. Geographic
distance from home, years in college, and sex were not related to the use
of the online social network. Implications for future research in the area
of online usage and wellness are discussed.

Social Networking, Religious Similarity, and Moral Reasoning:
Potential Causes of RevolutionKayla Jordan, Evangel UniversityABSTRACT: Given the recent outbreak of revolutions, understanding the causes
of revolutions would be beneficial for many people. In this experimental
study, social networking, religious similarity, and moral reasoning were
examined as possible causes of revolution. Participants were divided into
four groups and were exposed to a conservative political model organization,
which advocated using revolutionary behaviors to support political positions.
Each model group differed in its religious background and use of social
networking. All participants completed the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT­2;
Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, & Bebeau, 1999). Based on the results of the DIT­2,
participants were placed into one of three schema groups: personal
interests, maintaining norms, or postconventional. A three-­way MANOVA
confirmed a significant triple interaction effect in predicting willingness
to protest utilizing the factors of 2 (social networking) x 2 (religious
similarity) x 3 (moral reasoning), F(2, 152) = 3.342, p = .038, ηp2 = .042,
Observed Power = .625. This finding supports the complexity and
multiplicity of the causes of revolution.

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